1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to light guide plates typically used in devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), and particularly to a light guide plate with metal dots and a method for fabricating the light guide plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A liquid crystal display is capable of displaying a clear and sharp image through millions of pixels of image elements. It has thus been applied to various electronic equipment in which messages or pictures need to be displayed, such as mobile phones and notebook computers. However, liquid crystals in the liquid crystal display do not themselves emit light. Rather, the liquid crystals have to be lit up by a light source so as to clearly and sharply display text and images. The light source may be ambient light, or a backlight system attached to the liquid crystal display.
A conventional backlight system generally comprises a plurality of components, such as a light source, a reflective plate, a light guide plate, a diffusion plate and a prism layer. Among these components, it is generally believed that the light guide plate is the most crucial component in determining the performance of the backlight system. The light guide plate serves as an instrument for receiving light beams from the light source, and for evenly distributing the light beams over an entire output surface of the light guide plate through reflection and diffusion. In order to keep light evenly distributed over an entire surface of the associated liquid crystal display, the diffusion plate is generally arranged on top of the output surface of the light guide plate.
Referring to FIG. 10, a conventional light guide plate 100 is thin and flat. The light guide plate 100 is made of a transparent organic resin, such as polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). The light guide plate 100 includes an emission surface 120 and a bottom surface 140 opposite to the emission surface 120. A plurality of dots 160 is located on the bottom surface 140. The dots 160 are made of a transparent resin. The dots 160 can scatter and reflect incident light beams, so as to totally eliminate internal reflection of the light beams and make the light beams evenly emit from the emission surface 120.
However, because the dots 160 are transparent, some light beams emit from the light guide plate 100 through the dots 160. The resulting light wastage decreases the brightness of the light guide plate 100.